Stills must not be reproduced, copied or downloaded in any way. Hard copies of some images can be bought via the BFI Printstore and the complete collection can be accessed for commercial reuse via BFI Stills.

Introduction

“Jackson has translated the best-loved fantasy novel of our age into a commanding screen adventure, one with a sense of human terror and danger and grit under its nails...”
Andrew O’Hehir, Sight & Sound, 2002

Part one in a three-film adaptation of novelist J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring is set in the fantasy world of Middle-earth. Sticking closely to Tolkien’s plot, it revolves around the attempt by an assorted group of elves, men, dwarves and hobbits to destroy a magic ring whose power the wizard Sauron seeks for evil ends.

Shot in New Zealand back to back with its subsequent sequels, The Fellowship of the Ring was a hugely ambitious gamble that paid off. A landmark production, it marked a big advance in the integration of live action and computer-generated imagery, but at its heart was the robust, muscular and compelling storytelling style of director Peter Jackson, which ensured a big audience returned for the second instalment the following year.

Before advances in CGI made possible the idea of a (largely) live-action Lord of the Rings only animation had been able to capture Tolkien’s vision, in Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 cartoon version.